


Protecting Dunlath

by seori



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Forum: Goldenlake, Gen, Lord Theodore, Malorie's Peak Prompt, Series: The Immortals (Tamora Pierce)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 19:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17065976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seori/pseuds/seori
Summary: Maura meets her Knight Protector, Douglass of Veldine.





	1. Protecting Teddy

Maura edged closer to the banister, her breath catching in her throat. Directly below her was Sir Raoul, sitting in one of the chairs by the fire, throwing back his head, his laughter seeming to reverberate through her very bones. She couldn't see his companion save for the back of a blond head. Raoul had told her last week that the King was sending one of his trusted advisers to look after her. Her punishment for having a treasonous sister. She'd wanted to travel around with Daine and Numair, but Dunlath needed her.

She shifted closer to the edge, gripping the banister rail tightly in both hands. A king's adviser. He would have thick eyebrows, perfect for knitting together in concentration, and a lined forehead as a result of all the frowning he did. He would have thin lips because he wouldn't need to smile much, and a square chin that he would be fond of stroking. He couldn't be worse than Yolane's friends, but she wanted to get the measure of him before she met him. First impressions mattered, after all.

Carefully, Maura angled her head between the banister supports so her left ear was above the two men.

"Unaffected, even after years of living with Gary," the stranger was saying. He didn't have the thin, reedy voice Maura had been expecting, but a cheerful tone that made his every word sound like a joke.

Raoul snorted. "I have to say, I think the entire Carthaki navy would flee after five minutes with you."

"Oh, stop it, Raoul, you charmer. You'll make me blush." There was a pause and Maura held her breath, as though they might hear her otherwise. Just as she thought she might burst, the blond man spoke again. "Now, what's the girl like?"

Maura sat up abruptly, smacking her head against the banister rail. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she brushed them away. Before she could decide whether she wanted to listen any more or not, she heard Raoul saying, "Oh, she's very sweet, eager to please, a little shy. Actually, she blew up a couple of buildings single-handedly."

Maura flushed with pride at the memory.

"Sounds like my kind of girl," the adviser said, sounding impressed. "Maybe she can teach me a thing or two."

"Behave," Raoul warned. "Jon says he'll send Sacherell to keep you in order if you don't. No talk of - of anything. She's not used to your sort."

This time, the man sounded hurt as he spoke. Maura wondered what his sort was. She'd have to ask. "You think Sacherell would make me behave? The same Sacherell who made the stables collapse?"

"That was an earthquake," replied Raoul. His body language belied his casual tone; he straightened up in his seat, and Maura could almost feel the suspicious look he was evidently bestowing on his companion.

The other man coughed in an unsuccessful attempt to disguise a snigger. "Oh, yes, right you are, Sir, how silly of me. You can tell Jon that the thought of having Sacherell here makes me quiver in my dainty slippers."

A helpless giggle escaped Maura; she stuffed her sleeve in her mouth to muffle the sound a second too late.

Silence fell, then - "Anyway, I think we've spent enough time chatting. Are you ready to meet her?"

No sound of either affirmation or refusal followed. Maura stood and peered over the rail, seeing no sign of the two men. Maybe they had already gone to find her.

She sighed and began to walk down the stairs, colliding with something on the seventh step that shouldn't have been there.

She backed away and discovered the some _thing_ was some _body_ , a blond man - the blond man? He didn't look at all like she had imagined, more like a kindly uncle than a king's adviser. He had level eyebrows, was rather plump, and had a grin so wide it looked like it was splitting his face.

"So, Lady Maura. We meet at last."

She curtsied awkwardly, wondering if he knew she'd been spying on him. "What's your name?" she asked politely.

"King Jonathan," he answered, giving her a conspiratorial wink. "At your service, my lady." He bowed deeply to her.

She fixed him with a shrewd look. "That's not true."

"Oh, it is, it is!" he insisted, clapping a hand over his heart, the other staying behind his back. "I've had to go into hiding because that impostor threatened to - to-"

"To what?" she asked, not entirely sure whether or not to believe him, but nevertheless intrigued.

He placed his hand, palm up, against his forehead. "To ensure Lord Theodore was cut into quarters with the stuffing pulled out of him," he said tearfully. Maura's eyes rounded. "I just couldn't let him do that to Teddy," he continued, pulling a stuffed bear out from behind his back. "We're in hiding."

Maura stared at him, stared at Lord Theodore, and then burst out laughing.

The man's grin returned. He bowed once more. "Until my throne is restored, I am Sir Douglass of Veldine, yours to command."


	2. An Apple a Day

Maura and her people liked to pretend nothing happened. Even as they were salvaging the remains of the fief, and not quite daring to believe the fields weren't going to be sewn with salt, they were talking about what a nice day it was, and their hopes for the crops that year. Maura was no different, chattering away to her nurse about her new dresses, pushing the fact that she was actually allowed new dresses firmly out of her mind.

They couldn't pretend away the apple tree, though. It stood as a figment of her sister's treason, as a monument to Tortall's greatest mage. She would always think of it as a statue, rather than a tree.

Every week, she made time to sit at the foot of the tree, and listed every little bit of good news that had happened. Some times were harder than others.

This was one of them. Maura was sure that good things had happened that week, but today she was overpowered by what the tree represented. She sat with her back against the bark, her heart pounding away, and wondered if he could feel it.

"Thought you might want some company."

Maura started, her dress catching on the rough bark, squinting up at her visitor. Sir Douglass had only arrived last week, and she still was not used to him - which was perhaps why the treason was occupying her mind more than usual.

"Had to bring Lord Theodore, though, if you don't mind. Fruit gives me the creeps."

Maura smiled shyly, tugging at the blades of grass around her feet. "When they told me I was going to get a protector, I didn't think he'd need one too."

"Stuffed bears are all the rage at Court, dear Maura," he told her loftily, sitting opposite her, and setting Lord Theodore in the middle. "The King has at least seven."

She began to tell him that might be treasonous talk, but stopped, her face heating up. He seemed to know what she'd meant by it.

"What have you told the tree today?"

Maura looked up at him, startled, but did not question how he knew.

"Not much," she said softly. "It's - difficult today."

"The time will come when this will be nothing more than a tree," Douglass observed, in a rare moment of seriousness. "But the legend will live on, and no doubt tell a far more favourable story of Numair than the reality. Bet you've forgotten that he has awful taste in literature."

Unwillingly, he provoked a smile out of her, but she wasn't quite yet ready to ask exactly what Numair's taste in literature was. It occurred to her that this must be the first time Douglass had been near the tree. Maura was prone to keeping watch out of her bedroom window, lest the tree morph back into the man it had once been.

"What will history think of me?" Maura half-whispered, childishly not wanting the tree to hear in case it was a negative portrayal. She flushed at the thought, and was glad it went unspoken.

"It will say that you're a very brave girl. Ten feet tall, with the raven locks of the Goddess, and an aura of instant command. It will admire your bear collection, and say you got all your ideas from your Knight Protector!"

"They won't change my height," she objected, laughing. "That's silly."

"Of course they will. They change the Lioness's," Douglass answered, leaning back on his elbows. "Barely three foot tall, she is. Master of stilts."

"None of her family were treasonous, though, were they?"

He was silent a long time, looking grave. It didn't suit him, nor did it last long. "I used to be better with a sword that she was, did I tell you that? Used to beat her in fights all the time."

"You're lying!" she exclaimed delightedly.

Douglass grinned at her. If she'd known him better, she would have been able to detect the hint of relief in his expression. "Not a bit of it. Of course, we were about eleven at the time, and she has beaten me more than adequately every time since. I keep trying, though. She'll realise I'm superior one day - though if she asks, you didn't hear that from me."

Maura was too busy giggling to catch the glint in his eye. He reached up, and plucked two apples from the tree, tossing one to her.

She caught it, turning it over in her hands.

Douglass settled Lord Theodore in his lap. "Right, first lesson from your Knight Protector. Trees are just trees, no matter if they're sprouting apples out of season or not. No matter their origin."

Maura swallowed hard and nodded, averting her eyes.

"Take a bite."

She shook her head.

"I am not advocating you eat all your enemies after battle, mind. That is a lifestyle choice only Alanna makes."

When it didn't even raise a smile from her, he took the first bite from his own apple. Maura gave him a side look. He still resembled Douglass. The tree was still firm against her back. The ground hadn't re-opened.

She took a bite of her own apple - her face puckering instantly.

"Rubbish fruit, isn't it?" Douglass asked cheerfully, throwing his over his shoulder. "Sour as the person. Now, let's bid the tree good day, and you can take Lord Theodore and me to see your wolves. Best introduce me sooner rather than later, since I'll be sticking around for a while."

He was already standing. Maura turned to the tree, and whispered, "Goodbye", before getting to her feet too. "This doesn't mean I'm going to teach you how to blow holes in my fief!" she said warningly. Raoul had spoken to her before he'd left.

Douglass extended his hand to her, and allowed her to lead him to the forest, asking questions about each of the wolves all the way. Maura didn't even think to look back.


	3. Keys to the Castle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Fief Goldenlake's Malorie's Peak Prompt #70: Secret Passageways

Douglass had found that, by and large, people with secrets to keep did not blurt them out immediately. The trick was to let them think you were satisfied with their responses, and then allow them to betray themselves. Most of the time, they were not even aware they had done so. It was what made him a good spy, mostly, though a lack of ruthlessness let him down on that count. Once he had uncovered somebody's secrets, he was reluctant to give it all up in the name of service of the realm.

Loyalty is a two-way street, he said to Myles.

And he was abruptly sent to Dunlath.

Dunlath was not a place that was eager to divulge its secrets. He coaxed and prodded, though, and like its mistress, the fief gave way to his eagerness. Hangings shifted to reveal alcoves, bookcases moved to show a network of corridors. The castle both enabled and disabled secrets, depending on which side of the wall you were.

He used the passages sparingly; more to move around than to keep an eye on Maura. Maura was a steady girl, and she would come to him in her own time.

Some things you can't help stumbling on, however, and Douglass couldn't help but note that the passageways were free of cobwebs, and not as dusty as he would have expected.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Lord Theodore?" Douglass asked, drumming his fingers on his desk.

Lord Theodore didn't deign to answer, but then, he was a bear of few words. He obviously agreed that Douglass should give the passageways over to their rightful owner. Douglass wouldn't want Maura to think he'd been snooping around, in case it shattered their delicately balanced relationship. In one sense, he held all the cards, but if she started to pull away, the pack would tumble down.

In the end, his worrying was in vain.

"I want to show you something," Maura informed him, her brown eyes serious. "When I first showed you around the castle - well, I didn't exactly show you everything. After Yolane-" She blew out her cheeks, and changed tact. "You're living here, and I want to be able to trust you."

Understanding that declarations of his integrity wouldn't help matters, Douglass remained silent.

"But that means having you trust me in return," said the oldest ten-year-old he had ever met. "So, here are the secrets of my home." She lifted up Scrap, who had begun to wind around her ankles, and opened the hidden door in the fireplace. "There."

He had found this door in his second week, but he knelt before it now, examining the hidden handle. "Maura, I-"

"Now we can both use the passageways without worrying we'll run into each other," Maura said with a smile.


	4. Somewhere Between Truth and Fiction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a 31_days prompt: Who is the third who walks always beside you?

"Tell me about Lord Theodore."

It wasn't a request. Despite Maura growing up forever in Yolane's shadow, she still retained the air of noble command common amongst many of her peers. Douglass was the same way, and he had never come close to owning Veldine.

When he didn't answer right away, she rolled over onto her stomach, propping her face up with her elbows, and revealing her back to be crumpled and dew-soaked. Wonderful. Nurse would be pleased with him yet again. He was still recovering from the scolding she had given him after she had discovered grass stains on Maura's cream gown.

She hadn't appreciated the suggestion that the grass stains might be an improvement.

"Come on, Douglass. If he's going to be my house-guest for the foreseeable future, imposing on my hospitality, I think I have the right to know who he is. How do I know he isn't going to make off with my opal collection in the middle of the night?"

Douglass grinned, reaching over to ruffle her hair affectionately. "There are those who would say I'm a bad influence on you."

Maura shrugged, ducking out from under his hand, but leaving her hair sticking out at all angles. "That's all right. I can expel those people from my fief like that." She snapped her fingers.

"Very impressive," Douglass smirked. "I suppose I'd better do as you tell me." He stretched out, making himself more comfortable. "So, Lord Theodore. Where should I begin? He's a lord, of course."

(He'd been elevated to lordship when Douglass's brother had pointed out that Douglass would always be lower ranking, as the younger son. Belatedly, Douglass had realised he now ranked below his teddy bear)

"King Jonathan has offered him the throne on several occasions. He knows that Lord Theodore would do a far better job of ruling. Lord Theodore thinks humans are better left to sort out their own problems, though, and has thus far declined. Politely, of course."

(Jon had offered Lord Theodore Douglass's position on several occasions, declaring that he could put up with having to do Douglass's job for him for all the silence Lord Theodore offered. Douglass hadn't ever replied politely)

"Duke Gareth tried to make him his heir once. Lord Theodore felt bad for Gary, though, and refused to accept. Besides, I'm not sure the Duke will need an heir."

(That was true. Mostly. Douglass doubted Lord Theodore would have refused to accept if he could speak, though. He was always happiest at Naxen)

"Women fall at his feet. He's had more marriage proposals than I care to remember, but he hasn't met the right bear yet."

(Once, Sacherell had made him a lady-bear friend, but Douglass had been so horrified that Lady Theodora had vanished on a romantic picnic with Lord Theodore. She had last been seen floating downstream, caught by a strong current. It had taken Douglass three throws to get her in the river)

"It's said he's been around for centuries, assuming many forms."

(Growing up with pages and squires had been rough on Lord Theodore, and he was now in his tenth incarnation)

Eventually, in years to come, Maura would hear the real version of events, and find she preferred it, but for now, she smiled at Douglass. "I suppose he can stay, in that case."


End file.
